First sea trials for the new Orange giant

The first trial under sail of the new maxi-catamaran Orange 2 © G. Martin-Raget / Orange

Bruno Peyron and his crew set sails for the first time aboard the new Orange maxi-catamaran yesterday. A first trial session which allowed to carry on the preliminary tests, and to reach the harbour of La Trinité-sur-Mer, which will be Orange's base for the days to come. During this first outing, no major problems were encountered, to the satisfaction of the skipper and his crew.

Bruno Peyron : "There was no stress, since the conditions were ideal for this first navigation. The light airs allowed us to try all the sails, and to make a check-list of all the minor details that needed to be taken care of... It's still way too early to notice the main differences with the previous boat, since the objective of this first day at sea was not to search for performance, but to achieve a rigorous observation work, especially concerning the giant's sails inventory. It's critical, in order to check the triangulation, and to take a look at the sails' shape, their position on the rig. The good news is that there's no need to send the sails back to the manufacturer, everything works smoothly, we took reefs and it's all going well. We were about 20 persons on board, with the crew, the architects, the mechanic specialists, the sailmakers, the electronics specialists.. This first trial was carried out cheerfully, and it was a great pleasure for me to see the smiles on the faces of this crew, who I met about two years ago in similar circumstances. The manoeuvres went well, calmly, with the sun shining between the clouds. It was magnificent".

Orange's trials program will last another two weeks, then the crew will start to actually train in various sea and wind conditions. Stay tuned...